Yesterday I finished reading The Fame Machine: Book Reviewing and Eighteenth-Century Literary Careers by Frank Donoghue. In this book, Donoghue examines the role of literary reviews in the production of the careers of three eighteenth-century authors, who sought to establish themselves as professionals: Laurence Sterne, Oliver Goldsmith, and Tobias Smollett, who was both an author Read More
I have spent the last week (re)reading Lorraine York’s work on literary celebrity: Literary Celebrity in Canada (2006) and Margaret Atwood and the Labour of Literary Celebrity (2013). In Literary Celebrity in Canada there is a quote that really caught my attention. As it turns out, the same quote appears on the first page of Read More
This week was a busy one. Yesterday, I presented at the Northeast Popular Culture Association Conference. The conference was held at St. Michael’s College in Colchester, Vermont. My presentation, “Like a Bird on a Wire: A Study of the Rediscovery, Preservation, and Circulation of Ephemeral Texts,” was well received, and I thoroughly enjoyed the presentations Read More
In a week today, I will be driving down to the outskirts of Burlington, Vermont to present a paper at the Northeast Popular Culture Association Conference. In preparation, this week I have been working on finalizing my presentation, which is based on a larger paper “It’s History; or Why Now? How Rediscovered Rockumentary Footage Structures Read More
This week I feel that I have no choice but to continue my discussion of cultural prizes. Not only have I spent the week with my nose buried deep in the pages of James English’s The Economy of Prestige, but yesterday Alice Munro was announced as the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature – Read More
Over the past few months my proposed research has not only been shaped by what I have been reading, but has become much stronger by talking about new ideas as well as by writing, editing, and rearticulating my program of study for grant applications. The refining of my proposed research, I believe, has become increasingly Read More
In The Economy of Prestige, James English argues that scandal is the lifeblood of cultural prizes, contributing to its effectiveness as “an instrument of the cultural economy” (208). Pointing to the Booker Prize as an example, he highlights how its success is “bound up with the annual flurry of scandal that attends it in the Read More
For the first time in a while, this week I went into a Chapters Indigo bookstore. On this occasion, my experience was altered by the literature I have been reading recently, and thus my experience became highly mediated by my thoughts on literary prizes. As I walked into the store, the first thing I noticed Read More
“Known for his striking imagery and evocative descriptions of the human condition, Leonard Cohen has the distinction of creating a body of work that has remained contemporary and significant through three decades of shifting musical and aesthetic tastes. His 1992 album, The Future, introduced his poetic style to a new generation of listeners. In 2001, Read More
Oftentimes when I read a book or article on literary celebrity I experience a feeling of frustration. I am not always certain whether my frustration is legitimate and question if I am missing the point. My exasperation stems from this: sometimes an analysis of literary celebrity reads as a thematic analysis of celebrity in the Read More